Allison Pearson on aspiration

As Mrs Merton might inquire with a steely smile: “What do you think persuaded Oxford University to relax its entry requirements for the son of Professor Ralph Miliband?” asks Allison Pearson in today's Telegraph. In one of the most brilliantly written pieces I have read on aspiration, she understands exactly what is at stake.

Riddell, delusion and hypocrisy

You really could not credibly make up the hypocrisy of it. Take a look at the comments below David Laws' article in the Guardian supporting the Coalition's economic policies. Six of the first twenty five comments have had to be removed by the moderator. This is visceral hatred driven by pure ideological malice. The type that

ends with the words 'ethnic cleansing' and 'final solution' being written by so-called serious commentators who really should know better. It is blind prejudice. Just the sort of language Democrats in America suggest engenders political violence.

Meanwhile over at the Telegraph Mary Riddell - long an apologist for Gordon Brown's disastrous government and after eight months of attacking the LibDems, week in week out, for forming a radical Coalition government - suggests Nick Clegg and his LibDem colleagues should now be cosying up to Ed Miliband as his natural ally to form a 'progressive alliance'. An alliance of hatred no doubt. She concludes any political courtship between Mr Clegg and Mr Miliband may prove, for the Prime Minister, to be a very dangerous liaison. I am just staggered by the sheer delusion of it; the deep hypocrisy.

Clegg kept his word on paedophiles then

An intriguing and well written question at PMQ's today asked Nick Clegg which of his manifesto promises - 'apart from giving paedophiles, rapists and muderers the vote' - had the deputy Prime Minister kept?

The put-down came with the words "I'm not sure whether that was a question, or a line he's rehearsed over and over again for the past few days." Priceless.

Nick Clegg at PMQ's

"Clegg retains the impossibly high moral tone he favored (on many subjects) during his years in opposition. Adhering to a logic that mortals struggle to grasp, with great impatience he insists (as though explaining it to children) that the new policy is somehow in keeping with the old. When it isn’t. It is difficult to see this approach having widespread appeal." writes Iain Martin about today's PMQ's performance from Nick Clegg.

I think he's about right on tone, but utterly wrong on policy.

The LibDems did not win the election. Their manifesto promises cannot therefore be implemented. Indeed the British people did not vote for them to be implemented.

Coalition government is about compromise and agreement. Not lofty ideological principles that are unbreakable. No matter what pledges were signed before the election, the LibDems lost the right to stick to them the moment the electorate voted for a hung parliament.

For Labour to suggest that the LibDems now have no principles is seriously disingenuous - indeed downright dishonest. It is also why a coalition with Labour was never possible. And I thought it was all about numbers...

Quote of the day

Great quote from Nick Clegg at the LibDem conference today: 'You cannot build social justice on the sands of debt'.